Bridges

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Debuting multi-dimensional paintings by M (Michael Chow)

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Client:   Waddington Custot Year:   2022 Location:   London, UK Services:   Book Design, Print Production

Published alongside the exhibition, ‘BRIDGES’ by the artist M (Michael Chow) at Waddington Custot, we designed an exciting catalogue which exudes the personality of both the artist and the artwork.

Painter, performer, restaurateur, artist and polymath – amongst other things, M first exhibited at the gallery in the late-1950s. In 2022 Waddington Custot welcomed M’s life-affirming art back to London, this catalogue celebrates his journey and extends the audiences experience into the printed form.

To echo the grandness of M’s oversized paintings, we devised a cover jacket that allows the viewer to fold out a detail of the painting which extends the view out of the confines of the publication’s dimensions. The jacket’s plastic sheen has been chosen to reflect the materials and textures within M’s paintings. We produced two covers which the user can freely fold and re-crop the detail, strengthening the interaction between the art and the audience.

'An artist interrupted'

The publication includes reproductions of the paintings which feature within the exhibition, such as ‘Green Drop’ and ‘Hurricane’ (on canvas), whilst also showcasing a series of paintings on paper from M’s ‘One Breath’ series. The paintings are printed on coated paper to achieve the optimum representation of the artwork, whilst interviews, the biography and end-matter are printed on a beautiful off-white uncoated paper. This contrast in materiality further supports the ideas within M’s work.

An illustrated biography section showcases M’s journey from the world of Chinese opera in Beijing and Shanghai in the 1940s, through to London’s exhilarating art scene in the 1960s, to New York in the 1980s and LA in the 2000s. We devised a freeform grid to tell M’s fascinating journey – continuing the typographic treatment of the book, with slightly oversized detailing, which helps to build a graphic language unique to M.